Barbed
by ProcurerFaith
Summary: April receives a visit in the night that will leave her grief-stricken, and the turtle brothers broken and missing one of their own.


_**Disclaimer: **__**TMNT was created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. TMNT belongs to Mirage Studios. I am not making any money from this fic (but I am looking for a job as a writer XD)**_

_Author's Note: Thank you all for coming along to read my fic! This is my ham-fisted attempt at an apology for ripping all my fics down. If you need to find out more about that and why it happened, please read my updated bio :) _

_Anyway, this fic is very, very angsty – be warned! _

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_**Barbed **_

"April! _April_!!" April's eyes snapped open and immediately she sat up in bed. Her heart beat fast as she heard a tapping on the window and voices outside it. In the haze of sleep she still wore like a halo, she reached under her bed and withdrew the baseball bet she kept there.

She wasn't planning on being taken lightly, whoever her late-night visitors were. She climbed out of the bed, creeping towards the open doorway and the light that spilled into her front room from the wide glass windows that made up half the wall.

"Mikey, just break it!"

This time, April recognised the voice immediately and threw the bat down, heading for the window with only the nervousness of such a rude awakening now filling her mind. As she swept the curtains away from the window, she saw Raph gazing at her through the glass pane, his sai reversed in his hand and ready to knock out the window with it as he stood on her fire escape.

For a second, she matched eyes with him – and she'd seen that look before.

Only once had she seen it, but once was enough. More than enough. She remembered that time only too well. Leo had been close to death –

And then she extended her gaze and took in the other three turtles. Leo and Mikey stood behind Raph – and April gasped in horror as she set eyes on Don, who hung between them like a broken scarecrow. His head lolled as his brothers shifted forward, and April set eyes on the three inch wide wooden stake protruding from his stomach. His legs were shiny and black with blood, blood his brothers were also smattered with.

With shaking hands April undid the latch on the window and swung it wide, not needing to invite the turtles in, as they came in automatically. Raph came first, then immediately reached back to lift the legs of his wounded brother through the open window, sai between his teeth. Mikey and Leo were as careful as though there were carrying Jesus himself as they climbed through.

April managed to find her voice and instructed them to take Don through and put him on the bed. The brothers did not need telling twice. Carefully as they could, they lifted their direly injured brother onto the bed and Mikey immediately climbed up after him, rolling him onto his side and resting his hands against the bridge of his shell. The youngest brother's face was twisted in worry and April watched silently as he ran a hand from side to side on Don's bridge.

Leo immediately moved to the far side of the bed where Don faced into a corner and crouched down, reaching across the bed to Don's arm and murmuring reassurances to the injured brother April now realised must be somewhat conscious. She felt sick.

"It's got to come out. We've got to get it out!" Raph's voice was angry, with more than a hint of fear.

"I know that, Raph! Wait a second!" exclaimed Leo, turning to face Raph for a moment.

"What happened?" April asked, when she could find her voice. For a moment, nobody answered, then Mikey said, quietly,

"They harpooned him. The Foot. Feet. Whatever."

April turned suddenly, jittery, as Raph kicked over a pile of Casey's spare hockey sticks in the corner of the room. He moved away from them muttering furiously as Leo said,

"April, do you have any more sheets?" He was steadfastly picking away bits of broken plastron from around the eight inches of harpoon that were sticking out of Don's stomach.

"Yeah. S-sure…" she said, and turned to run for the basement, where her airing cupboard was. Raph, breathing heavily, took a heavy swipe at April's bedside table, sending it crashing over and smashing her bedside lamp.

"Raph! Go away! If you can't keep your cool just _go away_!" Leo yelled suddenly, as he was grabbing handfuls of sheet and pulling them towards Don's stomach.

"Grrr-nnyagh!" Raph kicked the door to April's room twice before heading down to the basement after her. Mikey watched him go, his nervous breathing thin and shaky.

"Mmn_uggh_t…" murmured Don suddenly and Leo immediately moved forward, sweeping a corner of the sheet into his mouth to clear the blood that suddenly flowed out and down his chin. Leo abandoned the sheet after a moment; it simply didn't give him the accuracy he needed, so he used a finger instead to swipe out the blood that filled his brother's mouth.

"It's all right, Donny. Shh, it's okay, we're here. Me and Mikey are here…" he said gently, and pressed a shaking hand to his brother's forehead. Don's eyes were barely open, but he blinked twice in quick succession and glanced up at Leo. Leo smiled superficially and said,

"There we go. There we go…" He scooped up more of the sheets and piled them around the harpoon shaft, wrapping them over and around it as carefully as he could, pushing them as close as he could to Don's fractured plastron.

April returned then, although Raph did not follow. Her arms were full of sheets, and she brought them to Leo, dropping them to the bed at the same time as she dropped onto her knees. She gazed at Leo and Don without speaking, knowing that Leo was entirely involved in his brother's needs at the time. Nothing she said would have made a difference – he was enveloped in trying to save Don.

She had nothing to say that would be of any use, so she sat silently beside them, her presence a stoic but silent support.

Leo got up on the bed now, gently, so as not to jostle Don any more than was necessary. But the brother he loved, the brother whose eyes were normally filled with light and intelligence was quiet and dark and still, save for his breathing – which had grown more and more uneven as the minutes had passed.

Leo blinked back tears as Don heaved more blood suddenly – it was insufferable to him that his emotions would try to interrupt him now, now when every ounce of strength he had needed to be put into his brother.

"Uh… right," he said shakily, "we need to get this thing out. Donny… Donny if you can hear me, I need you to nod."

A moment passed – and then there was an almost imperceptible nod from the wounded turtle, who was now cradled by brothers and sheets. Leo stroked his face gently and nodded, his superficial smile returning.

"Good… good."

Leo thought to himself that in fact it was not good at all – it meant that his brother was conscious, and in too much agony to move more than half an inch.

"Mikey," and Leo looked up to his youngest brother. He was biting his lower lip, and the tears in his eyes threatened to fall – they had not been the first. Leo smiled the superficial smile once again and grabbed Mikey's shoulder firmly.

"It'll be all right. We just have to… get it out. Make sure he doesn't bleed out."

"But he will, won't he? He'll bleed out," said Mikey, and Leo's expression hardened.

"It'll be all right. We can't lose him Mikey. So it _has_ to be all right."

"Are we going to wait for Raph?" Mikey asked, wiping his tears away with his palm.

"No. I'm here," Raph said, and his eyes held all his turmoil. Leo smiled, and this time it wasn't superficial. April moved out of the way on shaking legs as Raph came to sit beside Leo on the bed. Raph looked at Don with eyes full of pain and rubbed his frozen and still legs gently. Don blinked very slowly, aware of the touch but not really aware of anything more.

"Not getting much blood down there, are ya Donny?" Raph said quietly.

April supported herself with the end of the bed, tears filling her own eyes and racing down her cheeks. She knew, as the brothers did, what was coming. What was inevitable.

There was no stopping it now.

"We gonna push it or pull it?" asked Raph. Leo shook his head.

"We can't push it through, we don't know what's behind it. I doubt even two of us would have the strength to get it through, either," he said, gently rubbing the back of Don's hand with his fingers absently.

"We should push it," insisted Raph but Leo turned his angry gaze on him.

"I know we should push it, but we can't! This isn't his shoulder we're talking about, Raph!"

"He'll bleed out if we pull it! We'll turn his insides to mush, Leo!"

"Then what are we supposed to do! Huh? You tell me what out options are, because I'm out of them!" Leo said, fear raising his voice. Raph met his eyes for a moment, then turned away.

Mikey was murmuring gently to Don. He had reached over with one hand, resting it near the pool of blood Don had vomited and had planted the other hand on his head where it met the pillows.

"Just don't you listen to them Donny – they're just fighting again. It'll be all right, just like when we were kids… They'll sort out what's best for you… They will…"

Raph looked back at Leo and there was horrible, broken resignation in his eyes.

"Which is quicker?" he mouthed. Leo closed his eyes and licked his lips, trying to stop himself from shaking."  
"Pull," he eventually mouthed back. Raph nodded.

"Fine. Let's do this," Raph said. Leo nodded and said,

"Okay. You and Mikey, you…you brace him, hold him still. I'll pull." Raph just nodded, putting a hand on Leo's shoulder. Leo didn't smile this time – not even superficially. His brows knotted together as he attempted to control his emotions.

"C'mon, Mikes. I need you to hold tight," Raph said, as Mikey straightened. Mikey nodded and took a firm grip on Don's bridge, as did Raph.

"Donny?" Leo said, as he lowered himself right down to his brother's face. Don glanced up at him, but he didn't get any more of a reaction.

"Donny, we're going to pull. Okay?"

No response.

"Donny? Do you understand what that means?" Leo asked, pressing a little closer. "Blink if you understand me."

Don blinked a long, tired blink. Leo smiled, and this time it was half genuine.

"Can you forgive me?" he whispered, his eyes filling with tears.

There was another long blink from Donatello, and Leo reached around his head and pressed his face into his brother's neck. He blinked quickly as he muttered something into Don's ear and kissed his cheek tenderly.

After a moment or two he drew back stepped down off the bed. He turned immediately and wrapped his strong hands around the shaft of the harpoon embedded in his brother. He adjusted his grip and looked up at Raph and Mikey.

"On three." Raph and Mikey nodded. Leo took a deep breath.

"One…

"Two…

"Three!"

He pulled as hard as he could, and felt the harpoon start to move under his grip. He felt it rip through tendon and muscle, organ and bone. Still he pulled, determined to get the accursed thing out of his brother, to give him some peace at least. He heard Don cry out, but his brother had little strength, so it was weak. Nonetheless it was a sound that haunted Leo's nightmares for the duration of his lifetime.

He glanced at Mikey and Raph, who were supporting their brother and pulling him back into their bodies.

He dared not look at Don.

Finally, with a muscle straining tug, he pulled the harpoon free. Immediately, blood began to spread out of the wound, staining the cream and white sheets as red as the robin's breast. Leo instantly threw the harpoon to one side and dived forward, attempting to staunch the flow of blood before it was too late. It covered his hands as he fumbled with the sheets, and he felt more hands reaching in to help him, a sudden cacophony of noise – and then nothing, as a deep guttural groan filled the room.

Leo stopped in his tracks, arms extended, hands still cramming sheets into the wound. He lowered his head, shaking from the shoulders down. He relaxed his elbows a little - then tightened them again, pressing the sheeting so hard into the mortal wound that he could hear plastron groaning beneath his hands.

He took a deep, shaking breath, and then another – still without raising his head.

Mikey shook his head, hands still in place for pulling his brother into his lap.

"No… It's not… That's not right… That _can't _be _it_...

"Donny…" and at this point, he shook his brother. "Donny…You can't just _go_, this isn't some cheap hotel you can just check out of…" he looked up, gazing blankly at the top of Leo's head as he struggled with blood loss he couldn't beat.

"Leo, you said it would be all right… You-you said it… it would…"

"I'm sorry…" Leo whispered, and the words were followed by a swiftly escaping sob. Raph got off the bed, looking dazed, and walked out of the room, his toes dragging across the floor.

Mikey spoke, his voice rising in pitch as he continued to speak.

"Leo…_Leo_! You said it would be all right; you said Donny would be okay, that he had to be, you said-"  
"I'm _sorry_!" Leo cried, and this time his sobs would not be held back, but still he did not look up, could still not bear to look either his dead brother or his betrayed one in the face.

Raph looked all about his surroundings. He saw the table that Don had sat at so many times, pottering with all kinds of things – from parts of the boiler to bits of mp3 player. He saw the sofa where they had all sat and watched movies together in April's apartment, where they had frequently slept over. Where Raph had once woken Don up with Chinese water torture.

He turned around the room, his mind suddenly filled with images and noise and moments that had seemed like nothing at the time – but that now Don was gone were precious by their very nature. He slapped his palms into his forehead repeatedly in distress; he didn't feel able to cope with the thoughts – not now, not when his grief was so raw, not when his brother's body was so close, not when…not when…

Suddenly he lashed out, attacking everything in sight. His cries were grief-stricken and dark; strong, guttural, instinctive cries that came from the deepest, most gravely injured parts of his soul.

He upended the table, turned over the sofa, lashed out at the cushions with his sai and shredded one until the room was full of the white snow of curled feathers. He dropped to his knees before the TV set, breathing hard and allowing the tears to simply fall as he shoved his face into his hands.

His scream might have woken the dead – but Donatello did not stir.

Leo relaxed his elbows and crept closer to his dead brother. He slowly took his bloodied hands off the sheets and closed his brother's eyes with a still shaking hand. They were dark and grey – no light or curiosity lived in them now. Leo didn't even bother to control his tears anymore. It felt as though his heart had been ripped out, what were a few tears after that?

He wrapped an arm around Don's head and pressed his face into his neck tightly, as he had done before. He took deep breaths, and moaned slightly with each one– though he didn't realise it.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... It's _my_ fault…

"I should have protected you…I should have done more…

"It should have been _me_…"

"It shouldn't have been _anyone_…" he heard Mikey whisper. It seemed very far away, and Leo did not react at first.

"I blame myself… It's my fault that you're dead…" Leo muttered into Don's neck. He was alerted by a loud sob, and – though he was still reluctant to relinquish his grip on the body of the brother he could no longer protect – he looked up.

"But I'm alive…Please, _I'm_ alive…" Mikey wept brokenly. He reached his arms out to Leo. It was a simple way to ask for attention; a child's way of begging a hug. Nonetheless, Leo responded immediately to his brother's broken sobs and crashed into him, hugging him around the shoulders and pushing their cheeks together as hard as he might over their lost brother's body.

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_Sorry! I know, it's just a tad angsty… Thank you very much for __spending you precious time on my fic, and reading to the end. I hope I've managed to entertain you just a bit :)_


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